More Innovation Quotes

Take a look at a select set of thought provoking and inspirational innovation quotes about decision making.

"Innovation is this amazing intersection between someone's imagination and the reality in which they live. The problem is, many companies don't have great imagination, but their view of reality tells them that it's impossible to do what they imagine. " - Ron Johnson, Pioneered Retail Operations at Apple

"Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business has two and only two functions: Marketing and Innovation. Marketing and Innovation produce results. All the rest are costs." - Peter F. Drucker, (1909 - 2005), Author and Teacher

"I think all great innovations are built on rejections." - Louise Nevelson (1899 - 1988), Russian-born American Artist

"One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." - Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894), American Physician, Professor, Lecturer, and Author

"Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth." - Peter F. Drucker (1909 - 2005), Author and Teacher

"Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations." - Steve Jobs (1955 - ), Co-founder of Apple

"I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all." - Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 - 1859), French Political Thinker and Historian

"An innovation is one of those things that society looks at and says, if we make this part of the way we live and work, it will change the way we live and work." - Dean Kamen (1951 - ), American Entrepreneur and Inventor

"Innovation comes from the producer - not from the customer." - W. Edwards Deming (1900 - 1993), American Statistician and Author

"An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: What does happen is that the opponents gradually die out." - Max Planck (1858 - 1947), German Physicist

"I think we always move from imitation to assimilation to innovation, but I can't name you 20 people outside those we've already recognized who ever got to point three: innovation." - David Baker

"In order for America to remain a global leader in innovation and opportunity, we must give our children a solid foundation in math and science." - Kenny Marchant (1951 - ), Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas

"In some cases, inventions prohibit innovation because we're so caught up in playing with the technology, we forget about the fact that it was supposed to be important." - Dean Kamen (1951 - ), American Entrepreneur and Inventor

"Innovation is the whim of an elite before it becomes a need of the public." - Ludwig von Mises (1881 - 1973), Austrian Philosopher and Author

"Modern science is fast-moving, and no laboratory can exist for long with a program based on old facilities. Innovation and renewal are required to keep a laboratory on the frontiers of science. " - Burton Richter (1931 - ), Nobel Prize-winning American Physicist

"Small businesses are vital contributors to our economy. They are the economic engine that is creating jobs, exploring innovation, and expanding opportunities for Americans in every community across the Nation." - Allyson Schwartz (1948 - ), Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania

"Often the difference between a successful man and a failure is not one's better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on his ideas, to take a calculated risk and to act." - Dr. Maxwell Maltz (1899 - 1975),American Surgeon and Author

"Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview - nothing more constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of openness to novelty. " - Stephen Jay Gould (1941 - 2002), American Paleontologist

"Pure innovation is more gross than error. " - George Chapman

"Technology is driving the innovation. Technology is driving the creativity. Technology and the use of that is going to determine our workers' ability to compete in the 21st century global marketplace. " - Ron Kind (1963 - ), Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin

"The nature of an innovation is that it will arise at a fringe where it can afford to become prevalent enough to establish its usefulness without being overwhelmed by the inertia of the orthodox system." - Kevin Kelly

"You look at any giant corporation, and I mean the biggies, and they all started with a guy with an idea, doing it well. " - Irvine Robbins (1917 - 2008), Canadian-American Entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream

"There are no dreams too large, no innovation unimaginable and no frontiers beyond our reach." - John S. Herrington (1939 - ), Secretary of Energy of the United States under Ronald Reagan

"We can believe that we know where the world should go. But unless we're in touch with our customers, our model of the world can diverge from reality. There's no substitute for innovation, of course, but innovation is no substitute for being in touch, either." - Steve Ballmer (1956 - ), CEO of Microsoft

"Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference." - Nolan Bushnell (1943 - ) American Engineer, Entrepreneur, and Founder of Atari

"Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable." - William G. Pollard (1911 - 1989), American Physicist

"Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down." - Charles F. Kettering (1876 - 1958), Engineer and Inventor

"Mindless habitual behavior is the enemy of innovation." - Rosabeth Moss Kanter (1943 - ), Professor in Business at Harvard Business School